Feb 15, 2016

Elliot's Goodnight Moon Party

It wasn't too long ago when I was lying in bed with morning sickness and daydreaming about the months to come when I would feel better and have so many wonderful days to look forward too. One of the days I imagined was celebrating Elliot's 2nd birthday. I pictured a small and cozy party at our home surrounded by family and yummy comfort foods to warm us from the inside in the middle of February. A few themes were discussed when thinking of his favorite things, Team Umizumi of course, Batman, although Cohen has had that theme picked since his birthday last year, and it wasn't until a couple of nights before the party when Elliot reached for his favorite book (like he does every night) that I thought A Goodnight Moon theme would be just the perfect theme this year. It is something we look forward to overnight, I let him chose a book and it's always this one. His favorite thing is finding the mouse on each page, and in his squeakiest voice he says "mousy mousy mousy!" and points to it with a little chunky finger. It is a memory I will never forget. Something about how soothing the book is, and how warm and cozy the illustrations are, especially with the fire crackling, it just seemed perfect for a February party.

I was so inspired to do handmade decorations while flipping through the pages at Hobby Lobby. On the pages there were black and white drawings, moons and stars, the cow jumping over the moon photo about the fireplace, the lone red balloon, the mittens and socks hanging on the clothes rack, and the little old lady with the green yarn in her lap. I used felt and posterboard over a mirror of ours for the picture above the fireplace, and made a couple of yarn balls by rolling up a sock and then wrapping the yarn around, and put the remaining yarn in the bottom of glass jars to hold up the forks and spoons. I made a fire out of plywood in my college woodshop class and put it under the fireplace since ours isn't used on a regular basis right now, one day hopefully it will be! I illustrated and cut out the little black and white drawings for the cupcake toppers, and of course drew a little mouse for the fireplace so Elliot could find him. All in all it was very inexpensive for the decorations.

When he saw his highchair in the living room, he got really excited. He immediately wanted to sit in it and you could tell he felt so important. We ate bowls of chili, and also apple pie, praline pecans, and pineapples and blueberries that we turned into a moon in sky. My aunt made delicious cupcakes that Elliot kept trying to eat before it was time. I know the food is random but my party foods always are, I never know what to make but I knew chili on a freezing day sounded like a good idea to me. When it was time to sing happy birthday, I lit the candles on the cupcake and tried to sit it in front of him, but his busy hands kept trying to grab it making me so nervous. I was finally able to put it down in front of him and we sang, and then he very very slowly, worked on blowing out the candles. After that he opened his presents, and I loved seeing the smile on his face when he saw everything he got!

After all of our family was gone, he spent the evening banging away on his new drum set from his uncle Noah, while we cleaned up and opened up the rest of his toys for him. It is hard to have a small party when you have such a big immediate family like we have, but I think we had just the right amount of people for our little house. I always have a full heart after our parties, there is nothing like celebrating our sons birthday's surrounded by the people who love them so much too! So many good memories made, a few cupcakes to eat (they were so good!), new gifts to entertain him, and plenty of photo's to show him when he is older. Happy Birthday Elliot Dasher!